Twenty-five members of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation (MMFN) are heading to New York on March 25 to repatriate what may be the largest treasure of a First Nation ever taken to the United States. The American Museum of Natural History is finally relinquishing the unique Whalers Washing House, consisting of four wooden whales, 88 carved figures, and 16 ancestral remains.
The shrine, originally located on an island on Jewett Lake at Yuquot (colonial, Friendly Cove), was where the families of whalers went to conduct purification rituals in preparation for the whale hunt.
Designated as a National Historic Site of Canada and “the most significant monument associated with Nuu-chah-nulth whaling,” its repatriation has been a longstanding demand of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht and has been part of their spiritual revival, a process recounted in the powerful NFB documentary, The Washing of Tears.
In the film, the late chief Jerry Jack recounts how the Whaler’s Shrine had to be returned, “It’s got to go back where it belongs. It’s got to go back where it belongs. It was part of us, the Mowachaht nation. It represents our ways…they took away our spirituality.”
Franz Boas, a renowned American anthropologist, contracted to obtain and transport the large shrine to New York in 1903. He accomplished this feat by using an intermediary to offer $500 to two elders of the community and then spiriting the shrine away while the Nation was away on a seal hunt.
The Shrine arrived at the museum in New York in 1904 but has never been put on display in its entirety.
Despite the questionable circumstances in obtaining the Shrine, the American Museum of National History (AMNH) refused repeated requests for its repatriation.
Until now.
In 1990, the US passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a law that required museums to return Indigenous treasures to Native descendants if they contained human remains. Failure to do so could result in major fines or even criminal charges. However, the act did not apply to treasures taken from Canada.
What may have helped the AMNH have a change of heart were two California men, Albert and Alex Lara, who have traced their ancestral roots to the Mowachaht chief, Maquinna.
Using DNA testing and church records from when Spain controlled California, it appears that Maquinna had two children, a daughter, Izto-coti-clemot and a son, Yquina. The chief sent the two children to a neighbouring tribe and somehow they ended up at the San Carlos mission.
Church records held at Santa Clara University indicate that Izto-coti-clemot was baptized in November 1795 and married in the San Carlos mission church the next year. The Lara family trace their roots to a son born in 1797.
This is conceivable as the Spanish were coming to Yuquot during the fur trade era and in 1769 began establishing Catholic missions up and down the coast of what is now known as California.
In an interview with the Ha-Shilth-Sa newspaper last year, Albert Lara and his son Alex explained how they had always felt a connection with Indigenous peoples and had worked with Native American organizations over the years.
In discovering their possible ties to Chief Maquinna, the Laras reached out to the Mowachaht/Muchalaht and visited Yuquot in the annual Summerfest celebration last year. They began to get involved in efforts to repatriate the shrine.
The Laras contacted the American Museum of Natural History and joined the MMFN in requesting the shrine be repatriated. They then accompanied a MMFN delegation to New York for discussions with the museum last July.
Under Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, First Nations have the “right to the repatriation of their human remains,” and governments were obliged to enable that process.
In the case of the Whalers Washing House, its repatriation has finally come about mainly through the efforts of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht themselves, with the assistance of the Lara family.
The delegation will receive the Shrine in a handover ceremony on March 25 and fly back with the ancestors shortly after.
Albert and Alex Lara have helped arrange to bring back the carved treasures by truck.
The First Peoples’ Cultural Council will be documenting the repatriation for inclusion in an upcoming film.
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